The Taliban government said on Thursday it has yet to find the body of Egyptian al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who may have died in Kabul as head of the United Nations in a US drone strike in late July in a US drone strike. States, Joe Biden.
Zabihullah, the senior spokesman of the Taliban, said, “It is still a claim regarding the claim that al-Zawahiri was killed. The investigation is still ongoing and there is still no conclusive result and we have not found any body.” Mujahideen during a press conference in Kabul.
According to Biden’s statement on August 1, the leader of al-Qaeda died the day before during the US operation in Kabul, when the US anti-terror drone bombed al-Zawahiri’s house while looking out of the balcony.
“Because it was a missile attack, the target was completely destroyed and we found nothing there,” a Taliban spokesman said, avoiding openly denying the presence of the al-Qaeda leader at the scene.
Earlier this year, the terrorist had moved home with his family from Pakistan, where the historic al-Qaeda leader and predecessor, Osama bin Laden, died in another US operation in 2011, according to the White House.
The presence of the leader of the terrorist network on Afghan soil would be a violation of the Doha agreement signed between the Taliban and the US in February 2020, which led to the withdrawal of US troops from the country after two decades of conflict.
In this regard, the spokesperson said that although American drones were seen “patrolling” in the Afghan skies, the issue was “discussed at the highest level” with the United States, and they hope this “invasion” of their own space is hoped for. air stop.
The United States’ departure almost a year ago came, among other things, in exchange for Afghanistan not becoming a haven for terrorists as it was under the previous Taliban regime between 1996 and 2001, marked by support for Osama bin Laden and 9/11. 2001 attacks in the USA.
However, Al Zawahiri’s alleged death puts this into question, punishing the Taliban’s efforts to gain international recognition since taking power in August last year and freeing up their frozen funds abroad to deal with the crisis.
On August 15, a year after the Islamists took power, the White House rejected the “short term” release of blocked funds from the Afghan central bank because it thought the Taliban were protecting the al-Qaeda leader.
The Joe Biden administration has blocked $7 billion of Afghan central bank funding, of which it plans to allocate 3.5 billion to the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and 3.5 billion to humanitarian funds for Afghanistan.
source: Noticias
